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November 26th, 2003 - Wednesday State of the Hayley Address (again) I haven't done one of these in awhile. I'm tired so I'll probably forget stuff, but I'll write whatever I can for the sake of posterity. She's walking. Sort of. She started walking on the 19th of October and has gotten better at it since then. However, she doesn't like to walk much right now. She goes through phases where she won't walk at all. She usually does it if we prompt her to because she enjoys when we cheer her on, or she'll do it if she happens to already be standing. Mostly though, she still realizes that crawling is faster right now so there's more of that at the moment. And really, as the one who has to chase her most of the time, that's fine with me. Words that she can sign: Milk (nursing, not a carton of milk), water (which also stands in for juice), bath, up, down, brushing her teeth, eat (solids), "give me some of that food that you're eating please", and diaper change. I showed her most of them but she invented the one for eating and "give me that food!" herself. If you don't give her the food fast enough, she'll accompany it with a monotone "Uhn, Uhn, Uhn!" until you do. She's started saying a few words, though in typical toddler ways they aren't necessarily obvious to anyone who doesn't know her. She says "Dada!" and it's no longer just a sound - it's in reference to George. It's incredibly cute when he's not home and she hears someone out in the hallway (our apartment is next to the stairwell so we get a bit of traffic) and she'll stop what she's doing, look towards the door, and call out "Dada? Dada!" Every so often George will go out on the balcony for a cigarette and so occasionally she'll just look out there and say "Dada!" as though she thinks he might be out there. If he's home and he's in the bathroom or the computer room with the door closed, she'll bang on the door and yell for him. Last weekend George sent my very tired self back to bed for an hour but it was broken up by her occasionally banging on the door to see why I was still in bed. She says "Mama" when she wants me. She says hello, but it comes out as "Ay-yo?" It's usually used when she doesn't know where I am. If I leave the room to put something away, I'll usually head a questioning "Ay-yo?" that repeats until I call out to tell her where I am. She also says "Ay-yo" when she plays with her toy phones. What else does she say? She's been saying "Dat?" for awhile when she wants to know "What's that?" When you tell her what something is, she often laughs boisterously, as though she can't believe that's really a word. She says thank you, coming out as "Dat do!" but she doesn't know how to use it yet so she only says it when she's mimicking us. Some of the weird things she says? Oval. It's very drawn out: Ohhh-vahl. I thought it was really odd, but it's because of her shape sorter. I tell her what each shape is when she puts it in and I guess oval struck her fancy. She says old now, also drawn out as ohhhld. That started when I told her she couldn't have yesterday's sippy cup because it had old water. She also says "Oy!" sometimes, and slaps her head as she says it. We taught her that specifically to amuse our Jewish friend, and amuse it does! Just this week she learned to say ball and balloon. Balloon is particularly cute, coming out as "boon boon"). If you ask her what a baby says, she will do a very gruff and dramatized crying sound, probably because of my habit of watching "A Baby Story". If you ask her what a duck says, she does a very funny "Ai ai ai ai ai!" because she can't say "quack". If you ask her what a dog says she'll answer with a woof and ask about a cat and sometimes she'll answer with a tiny mew, other times she just goes off in search of OUR cat. What is frightening is that she understands about a zillion times more than she can actually speak herself. It freaks me out every time I tell her to do something and she actually does it. If I've given her a bowl of Cheerios for a snack and she's playing with her toys, I can tell her "Why don't you go eat some Cheerios?" and she'll stop what she's doing and go eat. You can tell her to go sit in her chair and she will. If you ask her where her baby, bear, dog, pumpkin, or Mickey Mouse is, she will find the appropriate one for you. If we're in the bedroom and I tell her "Let's go put on one of your videos!" she'll stop what she's doing and charge out to the living room, grab one of her Baby Einstein boxes, and wait for a video to start playing. If you tell her it's time for a bath, she'll frantically start doing the sign for bath, and then race to the bathroom to watch the tub fill up. If I tell her to lie down, whether we're on the bed, the living room floor, or whatever, she does so very dramatically. She can point to most of her body parts - she knows how to point to her eyes, ears, nose, mouth, tongue, head, hair, knees, toes, bellybutton, bum, and fingers. If I need to distract her while changing her diaper I can ask her to kiss her toes and she will, thereby keeping her hands out of a messy situation. She plays peek-a-boo, both in the sense of hiding her eyes and peeking out, and also by hiding behind a chair or the bed and popping out while yelling "Rarr!" the way I do to her. Then she laughs and laughs when you scream in mock fear. She used to not be ticklish but suddenly if I tickle her under her arms, on her feet, or on her belly, she dissolves into screaming, shrieking laughter. She imitates some of her favorite parts of the Baby Einstein videos, humming or making faces. It's hilarious to watch. She knows where the cat usually is - either behind the washing machine or under the dining room table. Even though the cat wants nothing to do with her, Hayley will sit on the floor, lift the tablecloth, and point at the cat, laughing. Then she goes "Dat! Dat!" and calls for the cat to come over, snapping her fingers and making kissing noises like I do. She got so used to the cat being under our table that when we went to George's parents' house a few weeks ago, she lifted the table cloth and started calling the cat, even though they don't own any animals. She loves to go over there so that she can climb the stairs. She's very good at it, even though I won't let her do it alone yet. Coming back down is harder for her but she's managing. At about 8 months of age, I became concerned that she would fall off the bed in an attempt to get down so I started teaching her by telling her "On your belly!" Then I would put her on her tummy and show her how to wiggle down to the floor. Now she's an expert and she can get off the bed, the chairs, and the couch in a flash like she was born doing it. This morning George was getting ready for work and when he left the bedroom, she very dramatically flung the pillows aside (make-shift guardrail so she won't roll off in her sleep) and hopped right down to follow him. She's getting more assertive (hoo-boy is that an understatement). If she wants a video, she points at them and says "Uhn!" If it's not time for a video I need to distract her immediately or she gets mad. If she wants to get into her car, she'll point and say "Uhn! Uhn!" but once she's in, I need to get her out immediately when she starts signing for down or she'll cry. When George is home, she gets to go into the "forbidden" computer/music room and if he needs a few minutes to do something without her in there, I become what he affectionately calls the cops, because I'll go to pick her up and she'll flatten out onto the floor and scream over not wanting to be taken away. These days, if she even thinks I'm coming to remove her from his side, she starts to yell at me. She's also becoming sneaky. She doesn't fully grasp no yet. She knows that no means she's not supposed to do something but she doesn't really get the idea that she should then follow through on not doing something. However, sometimes she'll discreetly do something that she knows is a big "no". Today I was doing the dishes when I realized the living room was strangely quiet, except for the music I had playing on the stereo. Most mothers know that silence is often a bad sign unless they're sleeping. I peeked around the corner and saw that she had just opened the entertainment unit and was reaching for a CD inside. Just before I got my mouth open, she looked over, saw me looking at her, and she immediately slammed the door shut and started dancing to the music, acting as though nothing had happened. Physically, she's in 18 month clothes now at least, and a lot of her pajamas are size 24 months. She even has a few outfits that are for 2 years. She's going to be tall like her father because she seems to outgrow pants in a two-piece outfit before she'll outgrow the shirt. I have no idea what she weighs but it's enough that I really don't want to carry her very far these days because she's heavy! As far as food goes, she's excited about just about any food. The only thing that she repeatedly refuses to eat is mashed potatoes. I gave her some Shepherd's Pie one night and she smiled until she realized there were potatoes on top. She stuck her tongue out and delicately scraped every bit of potato out of her mouth. I can't complain though because unlike a lot of kids, she really enjoys her vegetables. She's particularly fond of squash and green beans. Breakfasts are usually a handful of Cheerios while watching a video (so I can wake up with a coffee) and then a proper breakfast of French toast, scrambled eggs, fried egg and toast, or cheese on toast. Lunch is usually leftovers from the night before and an apple or banana chopped up. I give her yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese and crackers, or fruit for a snack. Supper is almost always what we're having, so she gets meat and chicken and pasta and rice and vegetables. This week she surprised me by demanding salad and then enjoying it. If we're eating something unsuitable, she gets a grilled cheese or an egg if she didn't have one at breakfast, with a vegetable side and a fruit or yogurt for dessert. She has a pretty good appetite and isn't shy about telling you when she wants to eat. Sleep is back and forth. Ever since we started the night weaning, she has slept through the night for 6 to 9 hours at a time about 5 times. That doesn't sound like a lot but believe me it is since she used to wake up every two hours! Sometimes she'll have really bad nights for a few nights in a row (or a week in a row!) and I'm exhausted. Other times I'm amazed at how well she's sleeping. Naps can be shorter than I would like but she generally gets down around 12:30 or 1 pm for an hour and a half to two hours. Without a decent nap, bedtime is worse. Her routine is really set now. She has supper, some play time while I clean up, a little quiet play time in the living room, her bath, and by the time I'm putting her pajamas on, she's rubbing her eyes. She gets her hair dried with my blow dryer, George brushes her teeth, and then she goes to bed. On a bad night it can take a long time, but most nights she falls asleep within fifteen minutes, usually between 8:15 and 8:30. That's about all I can think of though I'm sure tomorrow I'll think of a ton more that I could have added. Some days I'm really sad that she's growing up so quickly. The past two days I've been going through her room, packing up clothes that don't fit and pulling out the ones that used to be too big. That always depresses me. I put her summer clothes away and wondered if half of them would even fit by the time the warm weather comes back. On the other hand, I'm so proud of her. She drives me crazy some days - just today she was so cranky and whiney and demanding that I contemplated selling her on eBay. Yet I look at her and remember that just one year ago she was so helpless and a year before that she didn't even exist yet. The fact that she's growing so much and learning and understanding things amazes me. Just some pictures from tonight. 
Me and the Boo.
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Reading: The DaVinci Code.
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